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The Columbian mammoth was a savanna and grassland inhabitant, similar to the modern African elephant. Large males ranged from 3.7–4.0 m (12–13 ft) and weighed between 7–9 metric tons (7.7–9.9 short tons) with spiralled tusks that could grow up to 4.25 metres (13.9 ft) long.

It was a herbivore, with a diet consisting of varied plant life ranging from grasses to conifers. It is also theorized that the Columbian Mammoth ate the giant fruits of North America such as the Osage-orange, Kentucky coffee and Honey locust as there was no other large herbivore in North America then that could ingest these fruits. Using studies of African elephants, it has been estimated that a large male would have eaten approximately 700 pounds (320 kg) of plant material daily. The average Columbian mammoth ate 300 pounds of vegetation a day.

Hair believed to have belonged to the Columbian mammoth has been discovered in the Bechan Cave, Utah, where mammoth dung has also been found. Some of this hair is coarse, and identical to that known to belong to woolly mammoths. Since this location is so far south, it is unlikely the hair belonged to woolly mammoths. The distribution and density of this fur on the living animal is unknown.[1]

The earliest known proboscideans, the clade which contains the elephants, existed about 55 million years ago around the Tethys Sea area. The closest relatives of the Proboscidea are the sirenians and the hyraxes. The family Elephantidae existed six million years ago in Africa, and includes the living elephants and the mammoths. Among many now extinct clades, the mastodon is only a distant relative of the mammoths, and part of the separate mammutidae family which diverged 25 million years before the mammoths evolved.

A 2011 genetic study showed that examined M. columbi specimens were grouped within a subclade of woolly mammoths. This suggests that the two populations interbred and produced fertile offspring. It also suggested that a North American form known as Mammuthus jeffersonii may be a hybrid between the two species.

Larry Agenbroad, a respected researcher, believes that the M. imperator is a non-valid name given to unusually large M. columbi. Given that that proboscidean tusks grow throughout the animal's life, older animals will tend to have longer tusks, and so are more likely to cross. He has also mooted the alternative interpretation that M. imperator represents a subspecies of large M. columbi. This has also been accepted by other scientists.

The Columbian mammoth was one of the last members of the American megafauna to go extinct, with the date of disappearance generally set at approximately 12,500 years ago. However, several specimens have been dated to 9,000 years ago or less, and one near Nashville, Tennessee, was dated to only about 7,800 years ago. However, dates younger than 11,000 BP have not been viewed as credible.[2]

The remains of Columbian mammoths were discovered in the La Brea Tar Pits, located in Los Angeles, California, and the skeleton of one of them is on exhibit in that site's museum. The Waco Mammoth Site in Waco, Texas, has produced so far a collection of bones of 19 females and juveniles who are believed to have died in the same flood event, as well as the skeletons of other mammoths who died in separate flood events. This mammoth also lived in Mexico, where its remains are very common. A large individual is the central exhibit in the Regional Museum of Guadalajara, in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

In 1998, the Washington State Legislature approved the Columbian mammoth as the state fossil. Additionally, a specimen found in Nebraska in 1922 and named "Archie" is the state's official fossil. "Archie" is currently on display at Elephant Hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is the largest mounted mammoth specimen in the United States.

In 2011, two 13.000-11.000 year old petroglyphs thought to depict Columbian mammoths were reported at the San Juan River in Utah. Petroglyphs in the Colorado plateau may depict Columbian mammoths, if they are not mastodons instead.

The most recent excavation of a Columbian mammoth's remains (using a ground-penetrating radar) was in March 2013 south of Mexico City, where its body had been blanketed in thick volcanic ash about 1 meter (3.3 feet) thick. According to local researchers, the mammoth died circa 10,000 BCE–8,000 BCE at the age of approximately 30 and was the most complete to ever be found in the country (approximately 70% total by mid-April). As early as 2012, residents of the nearby town of Santa Ana Tlacotenco uncovered the animal's teeth, which were partially concealed by cacti.[3]